Now in the sixth grade at Harlandale Middle School, Ariana, 12, said she recognizes that she often pulls away from people when having problems after being bullied throughout elementary school. She's reaching the age where students in at-risk schools start to drop out due to such problems.

“I just was called weird,” she said. “I felt people would be my friend, use me and then just throw me away.”

For the past few weeks, Ariana has been attending a new after-school program called Velocity that aims to help middle schools students remedy or cope with a variety of problems. Some have tried drugs, wrestled with social anxiety, are struggling academically or simply feel alone.

But this trial project at Harlandale has taken a less common approach. It partners middle school students like Ariana with high school students who act as peer mentors. Conversely, the high school mentors — statistically even more at risk of dropping out — also are pushed to mature.

For example, Ariana's mentor, Harlandale High sophomore Mayra Figueroa, wants to be a teacher and hopes to absorb hands-on knowledge for her career by assuming the responsibility of guiding a younger student.

“I want her to grow into a stronger person, to be involved and to know we are going to be here for her,” Mayra said.

Harlandale is the first district to get the program, which is limited to 40 high school students from Harlandale High serving as mentors to 30 middle school students from Harlandale Middle who have been flagged by Communities in Schools for some form of mentoring.

Harlandale Middle School fell drastically in its state accountability ratings this year, going from “recognized” to “unacceptable” because of science test scores.

In Harlandale, the number of dropouts starts to increase between the middle school and high school grades, according to district data. In the 2009-10 school year, 13 students in middle school dropped out, compared to 196 in high school. Last year, 15 middle school students dropped out, compared to 133 in high school.

“The idea is that both the middle school and high school populations in Velocity not only stay in school, but that they are developed as ‘change agents' who can help impact their schools by caring for and helping other students succeed,” said Jaime Johnson, executive director of Boy with a Ball, a local nonprofit that is spearheading the program.

Velocity was developed by Michael J. Karcher, a Harvard-educated, University of Texas at San Antonio counseling professor who's written a series of studies on peer mentoring. Velocity's implementation is a collaborative effort among Boy with a Ball San Antonio, Harlandale Independent School District, the Spurs Foundation, Communities in Schools and H-E-B.

“The number of peer mentoring programs where teenagers serve as mentors to younger students is growing, but the growth has outpaced available research,” Karcher said. “But what we see is that students feel more connected and able to make better relationships with teachers, parents and peers when successful.”

Karcher's program cycles through various themes: how to deal with anger and sadness, playing on a team and improving communication skills. Students spend about 90 minutes at least once a week after school in Harlandale High's cafeteria, interacting with their mentors in one-on-one activities such as talking about their daily life and performing group exercises.

On a recent afternoon, Summer Silva, 11, chatted with her mentor, Gabriela Martinez, 15, about her declining grades and wanting to help a sibling cope with their grandmother's death. Gabriela made some suggestions and hugged Summer before a group activity.

The two then confronted an obstacle course in the cafeteria in which Summer was blindfolded and had to listen intently to Gabriela as the mentor guided her away from tripping on objects strewn on the floor as a throng of peers yelled at her distractingly.

The goals of the exercise were to maintain patience, focus and not get angry. After five exciting minutes, Summer became the first person to make it to the finish line after most had failed.

“I'm just not used to winning,” Summer said. “It feels good.”

Although the program targets at-risk schools, students in the program include mentors considered to be on the right track and mentees doing both well and poorly in school.

“We wanted to have a variety of students so that there isn't a stigma attached to the program,” explained Anna Currie, one of the program coordinators.

Karcher also designed the program to take into account the student's family, an important component in Latino communities such as Harlandale. Parents are invited every six weeks to an event on a Saturday, and Boy with a Ball staffers visit the students' households to develop relationships with families.

Velocity is in the first phase of a four-year plan before the program could go citywide. By year four, a fifth-grader could be a Velocity mentee through the eighth grade and then become a mentor in high school.

Paying it forward is what drew Alfredo Espinoza-Espinoza, 16, who said the relationship with his older brother helped take the place of the one lacking with his father, whom he didn't see because of his job. Now, he is mentoring Javier Garcia, 12, whom he said is as shy as he used to be.

“He is like a role model, like the brother I never had,” Javier said. “He actually wants my opinion — nobody asks me that.”